The 53M / K1 submachine gun was an indigenous weapon, designed during early 1950s by Hungarian designer Jozsef Kucher (hence the K1 index). It was officially adopted in 1953, and procured in limited numbers for police, border guard and certain paramilitary units in Hungary (the Hungarian armed forces adopted a license-built copy of Soviet PPSh-41 instead). The weapon appears to be of simple, robust and workmanlike design, and it s believed that it failed to achieve a more widespread success because of political, rather than technical matters.

The 53M / K1 submachine gun is a simple blowback weapon, firing from open bolt in semi-automatic or full automatic modes. The fire mode selector is located on the left side of the trigger housing, above the trigger. Safety is built into the bolt handle and locks the bolt in forward or rearward positions. Gun is mostly made from stampings; barrel is enclosed into perforated barrel jacket, and is equipped with muzzle brake - compensator. Metallic buttstock folds down and forward. The flip-up rear sight is L-shaped and has settings for 100 and 200 meters range.